Sheep (Farming Simulator 15)
Sheep are one of the three types available in Farming Simulator 15. Sheep are considerably less expensive than Cows, but proportionally less profitable. Sheep produce Wool, which can be sold directly for money. To do this, they must be fed on Grass. Purchasing Sheep Sheep may be purchased at the store, under the "Animals" category. Each Sheep costs $300. Purchased sheep will automatically be placed in your Sheep Pasture. Although the game doesn't bother to animate more than a few dozen sheep at the actual location, it will take into account as many sheep as you've bought, when determining their production and consumption rates. You may sell your Sheep at $150 each - half their purchase value. Each Sheep has an upkeep cost of $20 per day. As long as the Sheep are fed, they will produce Wool, which can be sold for a revenue of about $27.6 per Sheep, per day. If you don't feed them, or do not sell their Wool, Sheep will bring you a net loss. Feeding When Sheep are first acquired, their Productivity level is 0%, which means that they will not produce any Wool. This means that the Sheep will only lose you money, since they require a maintenance cost. To get Wool production started, you will need to feed your sheep. Unlike Cows, Sheep will only eat Grass. The process of feeding is very simple. First, you will need to mow some Grass, using a Mower. Then, collect the Grass using a Loading Wagon. Drive the Loading Wagon to the trough next to the Sheep Pasture - when you get close enough, you'll get the option to unload the wagon. Press the appropriate button, and Grass will be moved from the wagon to the trough. As long as the feeding trough contains at least 1 liter of Grass, the Productivity value of the Sheep will be exactly 100%, and they will produce a set amount of Wool (more on this below). Sheep Productivity cannot be any number other than 0% or 100% - indicating "unfed" and "fed", respectively. Note that you may use either Grass or Dried Grass to feed sheep - there is no difference between these substances as far as the game is concerned. In fact, you can also feed Sheep using Hay Bales, by putting them into a Bale Shredder and unloading the shredder into the trough. Hay is also functionally identical to simple Grass, despite the extra effort required to create the Hay. As long as there is at least 1 liter of Grass in the trough, it will be consumed at a constant rate of about 15 liters per Sheep, per day. When it runs out, Productivity will again drop back to 0%, and no more Wool will be produced. Wool Production As long as Sheep are fed (see above), they will produce Wool. This material can be sold at the Spinnery for a profit. Wool production rates are constant, at around 23 liters per Sheep, per day. Wool is automatically accumulated into sacks and placed on a pallet that will appear outside the Sheep Pasture, on top of a concrete slab right next to the feeding trough. The pallet will slowly be loaded with more and more sacks of Wool, as it is produced. The pallet can only hold a total of 2,000 liters, making up 4 sacks of Wool. Each sack contains 500 liters of Wool. Note that a new sack will appear when the previous sack has been filled, so the number of sacks does not actually indicate how much Wool has been produced. You can check the actual amount of Wool on the pallet by looking in your info screen under the "Sheep" subheading. Once the pallet on the concrete slab contains 2,000 liters, no more Wool can accumulate. As long as that pallet remains on the slab, no more Wool will be produced. In order for Wool production to resume, the pallet must be removed from the concrete slab to give room for a new pallet to appear. You can use a Front Loader to move the pallet, or simply push it aside with any vehicle. As a result of this mechanism, you will need to pay attention to your sheep, to ensure that they are fed, and that the pallet on the slab has enough room for Wool to accumulate. If Sheep go unfed, or Wool production ceases due to lack of room, you will effectively be losing money. Selling Wool At any point, you may take a pallet of wool to the Spinnery to be sold. You can do this even if the pallet does not yet contain the full amount of 2,000 liters. The simplest way to transport the pallet to the Spinnery is with a Front Loader equipped with a Pallet Fork. However, to save time, you may wish to use the Front Loader to instead load several pallets onto a single vehicle for transport, saving you the need to go back and forth between the Pasture and the Spinnery every day. There are several pieces of equipment that can be used like this, including the Brantner E 8041, the Fliegl Low Loader, and the Fliegl DPW 180. Note that in all cases, you may need to drive very carefully to avoid the pallets falling off during the trip. Once at the Spinnery, look for the unloading platform, which is marked by a black-and-yellow pattern. Any pallet that enters the marked area, regardless of what vehicle is carrying it, will be sold immediately. The price of Wool is $1.2 per liter. A full pallet will therefore sell for $2,400. Given the maintenance cost of each Sheep you own, and assuming you diligently feed your sheep and sell the wool in due time, each Sheep will make you a net profit of about $7.60 per day. This is just a little more than the profit for Cows that are provided with Straw Bedding, but far less than the profit for Cows that are fed on any substance. Of course, remember that cows require a much larger amount of feed each day, compared to Sheep. Specifications See also *Animals (Farming Simulator 15) *Sheep Category:Farming Simulator 15 Animals